


Farmers Only

by BouncyOrb



Category: Original Work
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-09
Updated: 2019-11-09
Packaged: 2021-01-26 10:27:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21372637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BouncyOrb/pseuds/BouncyOrb
Summary: Boy traveling the west looking for work, finds something much better.
Kudos: 6





	Farmers Only

This was maybe the tenth door he knocked on today, though he wouldn’t have been able to count it. The land was less worked than other places. More livestock than crops, he reckoned. He liked livestock. He walked up to the door and knocked. He felt like he knocked too hard, but he felt like the door could handle it. A man answered the door and he almost forgot to speak.

“H-Hello, sir.”

“Hello yerself.” He answered, with no tone in particular. He leaned against the door frame. “What’s your name, boy?”

He took off his hat and held it to his chest to better let the man see his face.

“Why I ain’t got none, sir, on account of my mammy passed on before she could give me one”

“I’m real damn sorry to hear that.” He said with the same voice. He could tell he meant it though. “What can I do ya for?”

“W-well,” he went on, just like he practiced, “I can’t read nor write, sir, b-but I’m mighty good with horses and I can sure mend them fallen fence posts what I saw on my way in.”

The man looked like he wanted to say something.

“And! And I won’t ask for nothing much more than a hot meal and a warm place to sleep.” The man sighed and looked over the boy’s shoulder at the sunset.

“If I turn you down, you got a safe place to sleep tonight?”

“I’m sure I don’t.” He answered. “Sir.”

The man stood up straight and swung open the door all the way.

“This ain’t a deal just yet, got it?” The boy stood there, not getting it. “I dunno about staying for good, but damn me if I let a boy sleep out there on his own.” Still he didn’t move. “Will you get in here already, it’s gettin’ cold.”

The boy nearly fell over himself jumping through the door. The man’s house was smaller than it looked from outside, full of furniture and little trinkets and knick knacks. He stood in the front room turning in circles, like he was trying to see the whole thing at once. He didn’t see the man smile to himself.

“My name’s Diedrick. Call me sir if you please.”

“Oh of course sir, thank you so much.”

“Don’t get all grateful on me yet, boy. Gotta talk to my wife about it. Just wait here, have a seat, we’ll getcha when we’re ready.”

The boy thanked him again and sat on the large sofa in the front room. He hasn’t sat on a sofa this nice his whole life.

“Pa!” somebody shouted from outside. “Pa! Another fence post fell over!”

The wasn’t sure why, but he stood up from his seat when the door opened.

“I don’t know much about fences but if you lend me your tools I’m sure I can do…” he stopped when he saw the boy in his living room. “…something.”

“H-hello.”

“Hi…who might you be?” he set down a book on a table in the middle of the room.

“I…dunno yet.”

“My pa know you’re here?”

“Yeah.” He couldn’t help but stand when he looked at him. He the way he shut the door behind him, the way he set his book down, the way he brushed some stray hair out of his eyes. It was so gentle. He figured he shouldn’t just stare. What’s your name?”

“Nolan.” Even the way he spoke, like he knew what you were about to say before you said it. “How about you?”

“Don’t got one.” He said without thinking. He was trying to see what color his eyes were.

“You don’t have a name?” Nolan asked.

“I, uh, well my momma, she uh…”

“Nolan.” Diedrick stepped back out of the hallway. “I see you met our new help.”

“Our new help?” Nolan said.

“Yer new help!” the boy shouted joyfully. “Oh thank you so very much sir, I swear I’ll be the best help you ever had.” He said, shaking his hand vigorously.

“Okay, okay.” Diedrick chuckled. He watched his son smile at the boy. He don’t smile like that at nothing else, he thought. “Hey Nolan, you’ve read more books than I know how to.”

“If you say so.”

“How about you give this boy here a name.”

“W-what?”

“So you weren’t joking then? No name at all?” he shook his head. “What do people call you?”

“Boy, kid, a few other names I don’t feel like repeating.”

Nolan looked at him for a moment. His dusty black hair and his old overworn clothes. His muscular arms and his broad shoulders. His hopeful eyes and warm smile. All of a sudden Nolan thought he might be looking for more than a name in this boy.

“You, uh, alright boy?” Diedrick said.

“Oh, yeah, I’m just…” he clumsily stole another look at the boy. “Lot to consider. Name’s an important thing to have.”

“Don’t I know it.” He said. “Hey no big rush, I gone this long without a name. I can wait one more meal.”

“Oh I sure hope you can.” a woman said joyfully from the dining room. “I heard we had a guest, I made enough to feed an army.”

“Alrighty!” Diedrick held a hand out to her as if to present her to the boy. “This angel here is my wife, Winola.”

“Quit sweet talkin’ and come wash up.” she said with a smile. “You too young man. I don’t have many rules of my own but ‘wash up before supper’ is number one.”

“Understood, ma’am.” he followed Nolan and his father to the sink and washed his hands, watching how they did it to make sure he did it right. He reached under the faucet to rinse his hands and they brushed up against Nolan’s. He watched the dirt wash from  
both of their hands and he felt light as air when he realized neither of them had pulled away. He wasn’t sure why he felt like he should. He looked up at Nolan for just a moment, his cheeks were red as the setting sun, and he smiled at the sink.

Is he smiling at his hands or mine?

After shyly turning back to the sink and finishing washing his hands, he sat at the table, square and perfectly sized for four people. He tried thinking about every time he’d eaten at a dinner table, a few different placed he’d worked has big cafeterias for the workers, and a few different families he worked for let him eat at their table when they were done eating. But nothing like this. Winola set a bowl of stew and a spoon at every seat at the table.

The boy didn’t wait not one moment to dig in on his supper, scooping up spoonfuls of meat and potatoes as fast as he could, it was his first hot meal in longer than he could remember. He almost finished the entire bowl when he noticed the family staring at him.

“Oh…I-I’m sorry…”

“Oh don’t,” Winola chuckled, “it’s the best compliment I’ve gotten about my food.”

They all laughed together, the boy felt so warm and welcomed. He’d never had a meal like this, as a family. He saw Nolan sitting across from him, laughing with him, and that warmth he felt grew stronger. He thought maybe he was coming down with a fever. 

I’m just not used to good ol’ fashioned home cookin’, he thought. When Nolan looked back at him he darted his eyes back to his food.

After dinner, Diedrick took him out to the barn to show him where he’d be sleeping. The sun had set already, but the summer air was still warm.

“Alright, boy,” Diedrick said, hanging the lantern he was carrying on a rusted hook. “I’ll have Nolan bring out your cot and a blanket. Tomorrow, thinkin’ I might get you to help me get them fences back up.”

“Oh, I’d be happy to, sir.” he said earnestly.

Diedrick left to get his son and the boy sat on the ground in the barn. It almost didn’t smell like livestock, not that he would have complained. He could see the moon through gaps in the roof. He stared up at it for a while as he sat. Before he knew it, Nolan swung open the big wooden door at the far side of the barn. He watched as the moon cast ribbons of shadow on him as he walked over to him. By the time Nolan got to him he figured he oughta say something.

“Th-thanks. Thank you.” He stumbled through his words as he took the folded up cot from him.

“Blanket is folded up in there for ya.” Nolan said, sitting down next to him. He wasn’t touching him but he was close enough to make him blush for just a second. “Oh! Almost forgot.” Nolan pulled out a book that was tucked under his arm.

“What’s that for, gonna teach me to read? Ha.”

“Well…I could do that.” Nolan said, trying to make the words come out as slow as he could. “If you want! That is.”

“Oh, well, I…” he was only joking but he figured Nolan could tell that.

“Anyhow, I brought you this book because of your name.”

“My name!?” he sat straight up, listening intently. More than he already was.

“I picked one for you. From this book right here.”

He tried to read the title on the front of it but he knew he couldn’t.

“It says ‘Tales of Jackie West’, its about a man who goes around the world and fights bad guys. Like crooks and killers and the like.”

“Gosh,” the boy said, “is it a true story?”

“Some people say so. Author never said so himself but there’s lots of people say they’ve seen him.”

“Wow. Maybe we can find him one day.” the boy said.

We. He said it without thinking, it just came out, he just said what he was thinking. We. He stared straight ahead so he didn’t have to see if Nolan was embarrassed or not. He beat himself up in his head, telling himself you can’t just say stuff like that. We. He felt awful for about one second before he looked back to Nolan and saw him smiling. Not tryin to hide it or anything.

“Yeah. Maybe.” He smiled at nothing for a second longer, then he snapped back to his book. “Right, so I picked your name from a character in this book. Jackie West’s best pal and mechanic. Ferran.”

“Ferran.” he said. “Ferran!” he said again, louder this time. “Ferran! Ferran! I got a name! My name’s Ferran!” he shouted, standing up and leaping into the air with joy.

“Damn right it is!” Nolan shouted and leapt up with him.

“This is…this is…” he tried to find any words except the real embarrassing ones he was thinking of to say. “I couldn’t thank you enough if I tried!”

“Hey now, you’ll be thanking me by fixing them damn fences, get my pa to shut up about ‘em.” Nolan held his book out to Ferran. “Here hold this, I’m gonna go get something.”

“Okay.” he took it, leaned up against the barn wall, and watched the moon continue to wash shadows over him.

Ferran opened the book. He didn’t know why but he figured looking at some words now would help him later when he asks Nolan to help him read. He skimmed through dozens of pages and when he got to the back cover, there was a drawing on the inside of it of Jackie West and his friend Ferran. He thought they looked like real good friends, the way they got their arms around each other. He clapped it shut and set up his cot so he could sit and Nolan came back in with a bottle.

“What’s that?” Ferran asked.

“This here?” Nolan answered excitedly. “It’s my pa’s special whiskey.”

“Oooh” Ferran responded.

“Its some kinda Irish somethin’, bought it off one of them travelin’ salesmen. Supposed to be for special occasions, and I thought this was a very special occasion.”

Nolan sat on the cot next to Ferran and popped the cork out. This time they were close enough to feel each other’s warmth. Ferran panicked for a moment and wanted to scoot away, but Nolan handed him the cork and took a swig straight from the bottle. 

Drank a lot more than it looked like he would.

“Whoo! That’s gonna put me to sleep tonight.” Nolan said, laughing. “Would you like a drink, Ferran?” he said, emphasizing his name.

“Boy, do I ever.” Ferran took the bottle from him, trying again not to keep looking at Nolan as he grabbed it. He brought it to his lips and paused for a moment, the image of Nolan taking a drink stuck in his head. He took his drink, trying not to show the effort.  
Ferran didn’t get to drink much, maybe once or twice in his life. The whiskey burned on his tongue but not as much as he expected. Must be that special Irish something, he thought. He tried not show that he was thinking about how the mouth of the bottle was warmer than the rest of it. Nolan watched him drink for a few seconds longer than he probably should have, but it weren’t the whiskey he was trying to savor.


End file.
